Thursday 19 May 2022

Early One Morning, Just as The Sun was Rising.





The old guy was down by the bins again this morning; I hadn’t seen him for a long time and I told him so.


‘I’ve seen you though’ he replied.


That was a little unsettling, but I let it ride and set about smashing bottles in the bottle bank.


“Do you want this suitcase?” He suddenly asked.


“I don’t know; do I want this suitcase?  I replied, genuinely unsure. I hadn’t planned a suitcase event that day, or any time soon.


‘It’s a nice suitcase,” he explained and held it up for me to see.


It was still early in the morning and the rays of the rising sun bathed the suitcase in a providential glow.


It was a classic suitcase, not old, not new – timeless. A simple chequer pattern the corners reinforced with metal supports and a handle that looked like a type of late Bakelite.


“It’s made for travelling”, he said.


‘I like travelling”, I mumbled. I was mumbling because I was thinking. It was a nice suitcase; clean, compact and with an air of expectation which was difficult to define.


“It needs a sticker”, he said as I took it from his hands to inspect.


“And initials’.


“I have some initials “, I said, perhaps unnecessarily.


But much of the morning so far had been unnecessary.


“Here, take this”. The old boy handed me something.


I put the suitcase down on the floor, next to my feet as if I was waiting for the bus and opened the packet he had given me.


Inside were three stickers.


Stickers like you would see on the side of a suitcase well-travelled.


The first said San Francisco and had an image of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset.


The second said New York, I love You.


The third was an image of a geyser gushing with the legend Iceland.


I looked at the old Boy, but he was nowhere to be seen.


I looked at the suitcase and I saw the initials T.A. engraved next to the Bakelite handle.


I looked up and the bus door opened.




2 comments:

Peter said...

We have old geysers here near our bins but not as nice as round yours. Perhaps we could swap?

popps said...

We could swap, but i fear we might be swapping ourselves!
I think i am an old geyser, and you might be....
Then again, you might not be.
By the way, i was wondering - could you invent something that you could put in a suitcase, that communicated with something else that was in your pocket and then you (one) could walk through the airport with a suitcase following you, thus avoiding the need to pull or push it?